Why is the irreligious West prosperous and religious India poor?

From Prathamesh P:

Since material prosperity is proportional to good karmic credit, why do we see that the people in west are more materially prosperous even while committing much more sinful activities compared to the people of India, who have been performing relatively much less sinful activities because of following Vedic doctrines? Kindly elaborate on how to understand this point.

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Transcript

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Hare Krishna Question from Prathamesh Prabhu If Economic prosperity is Proportional to one’s Karmic credits Then why do we see that people in the west Are so prosperous Despite doing Far more sinful activities Than people in India Who are Relatively doing Less sinful activities because of Having some following of Vedic philosophy Answer There are multiple Factors to be considered When we try to See how philosophical Truths Play out in real life Firstly The word Artha Does not simply mean Financial prosperity In terms of Just finances, in terms of Just money It has multiple meanings It basically Means the Availability of Abandoned material resources For the sake of Living in this world So more than financial prosperity Artha leads to Natural prosperity In natural prosperity there are Finances also there But along with that There is the bounty of nature There are grains and there are fruits And there are other things Which actually contribute to human well-being So When we live according to Dharma Then we get the resources Which are needed for being Happy in this world So because of excessive propaganda Materialistic propaganda Misleading materialistic propaganda rather That there is too much Infatuation with money And where money is definitely important And money is definitely very important Almost all important for materialists But even from the material point of view Money alone is not the Source of happiness There is a lot of money If people are lonely If people are surrounded by Those who are out to get their money Then they may have a lot of wealth But they are miserable They are suspicious, they are lonely They are miserable essentially So We see that Ravana despite doing a lot of bad karma Had Golden Lanka He had phenomenal amount of prosperity So that Reflects that in this lifetime Itself we may not be able to see The immediate correlation Between action and reaction There is individual karma So I am going to second point now The first point is that It’s not that Artha refers only to Financial prosperity It refers to overall resources needed for material well-being And although From the point of view of Having resources Many times people in the rural areas May seem Very poverty stricken As compared to people in the urban areas But actually by living close to nature Many of them are much more peaceful And relatively speaking Joyful lives, not everyone There are villages also where people are miserable And there are cities also where people are Distressed, stressed and miserable So the point is We have to simplistically equate Financial resources with Artha Or with happiness Even at the material level So secondly There is individual karma Which may or may not play out Which may or may not Immediately bear results Just like Ravana’s sins It took some time for him to catch up If we see Ravana was the person who killed An ancestor in The Suryavamsa Anaranya was a king Who was a king of Ayodhya Long before Dashrath So that means at that time Ravana was In the prime of his youth And Ravana went around Terrorizing and killing people And he killed Anaranya And then after that Dashrath came and Ram came And still at that time Ravana was the king So this means That Ravana actually was a king of Lanka For a very long time And he enjoyed for a long time Rule over there So he was doing sinful activities But he did get prosperity How is that? That is because there is time lag Between action and reaction So Ravana’s prosperity Was because of whatever austerity he had done And he had pleased Brahma And he had Done some good by that Because of which he got the prosperity But he was doing sin now and that reaction would come So in karma There is a principle of karma and action-reaction is there But there is Variable time delay Between action and reaction Just as different seeds Fructify after different time durations Crop seeds may fructify after a few months Fruit seeds may fructify After a few years And some trees may fructify After 20, 30, 40 years also So similarly Different karmic reactions Fructify after different time durations So if people are doing Some sinful activities Then certain reactions will come The reactions will definitely come but when they will come It will vary So if people in the west say Are doing Lots of sinful activities At an individual level all of them will get reactions But at a Social Or a group level Other factors also come into the picture So what is that? Now we have to understand that reactions come The reactions that we get Are based not just on our past life It’s also based on The actions that we do in this life So that means That at one level We are talking about sinful activities leading to sinful reactions They may come in this life They may come in next life But along with that the actions That we do in this life they also have immediate Consequences If Say if somebody Runs on A floor that is slippery The person will slip and may break a leg That is a careless action done at this Particular time and that careless action Led to careless reaction So now does one have to Go into analysis by paralysis mode Thinking that oh did I do some Past bad karma because of which I ran Here and because of which I slipped and fell You know once some devotees They were driving They were going for food distribution And they were driving at a reckless speed And they had an accident And then When this report came to Sri Prabhupada Devotee reported he asked Sri Prabhupada Prabhupada was this because of This is the accident because of Krishna’s Arrangement He said because of their carelessness They should not have Driven so fast So the point is that Even this life The way we live and the way we act Also determines reactions Also determines Has reactions in the sense that It has consequences on the way we live So we see at a material Level In the western countries They are doing management properly Relatively speaking much much more properly Than is being done in India And so if the resources are Better managed then naturally there will be more Comfortable conditions So now this is irrespective Of whether one is doing some sinful activities or not So the sinful activities are done The reactions will come for it But irrespective of whether one is Doing sinful activities or pious activities There are certain actions Which one has to take for protection So irrespective of A person whether a person is virtuous or Vicious a person puts a hand in Fire that hand will get burnt That will not depend on whether a person is vicious or virtuous So similarly If one does not Do management of resources well Then there will be reactions So historically If we see the Indian Rulers Were often Caught in internecine Fights and they did not have A united nation And that’s why they were Vulnerable to attacks by Invaders and these invaders Came to India and they plundered India So The current prosperity or Lack of prosperity that we see in India The karmic Reactions We can’t see this prosperity as Simply only good karma or Bad karma because if we are going To look for bad karma and good Karma and its reactions Then we will see that the Pandavas What bad karma had they done and they had to Suffer For so long in their Lifetime they had to go through So much mortification and humiliation We also have To look at we may say at one level The Pandavas suffering was just the past time Arranged by the lord that is fine But then there are other stories Also which are described where They had to suffer a lot For whatever reason The point is It’s a very simple point that I made two distinct points First point was that Every good karma will have a good result Every bad karma will have a bad result But there is a time duration between that And that’s why we may not see necessarily Prosperity resulting from Good karma and adversity resulting From bad karma within this lifetime Or within our finite region Second point I made is that irrespective Of whether one is doing good or bad karma There are certain Things which need to be basically done To be able to live well in this life And if one doesn’t do them Then there are going to be consequences of that So if we see at the material level The Indian, many of the Indian Kings throughout history have not been At all competent in Protecting the kingdom because of their Intensifying fights They did not present a united front Against the invaders and they succumbed And India was plundered repeatedly So India’s current poverty Is a result Much more of its Material level mismanagement Of resources And not so much a result of Sinful activities That’s the Second reason which we can talk about And relatively speaking in the west material resources Are managed much better The third reason which we can understand From this is that To whom much is given Much is to be expected So Indians are given spiritual knowledge And if Indians don’t use the spiritual knowledge for spiritual purposes And they try to imitate The western people Not just the west necessarily, the materialism Of the west So then there will be Consequences for that also The fourth point is That we shouldn’t Stereotype the west Simply as filled with sinful people Yes we in India often are Attracted to the materialistic Images or materialistic Depictions of the west, whether they be soap operas From the west or the movies from the west Or whatever But even what we call as the west Especially in America There are many people who are religious And there are people who are Doing some level of dharma According to some level of religious morality Not in the sense of Which is talked about in the Vedas But there is some attempt to live according to the word of God And That also Living according to ethics and morality And Limiting sinful activities In that way, that also leads to good results Especially if you look at The west If you look at America America is Considered to be in many ways The leading power in the world In terms of prosperity and political power And other things So if you see America The founding people of America Where those who went on Where the protestant Christians Who went on the Mayflower And other ships there And they were actually Because of the reformation Subsequent wars that happened Between the protestants and the Catholics And because of which the protestants Were often persecuted So the whole theopolitics is quite complex But basically The founding people Who came to America They were in their own way religious people And they did Try to live a religious life And they They had Some sense of religious morality So that’s why On one side we have India where there is so much Dharmic knowledge but still there is Imitation of materialism Coming from elsewhere And the west Although we may like to paint it as stereotypically materialistic And although there is a lot of materialism But there is substantial amount of religion And faith in God Although that may be expressed in ways Slightly different from the ways we express faith But the principle remains the same And further Beyond all this The most important thing to recognize is That The Kali Yuga Is an ocean of faults So the ocean of faults means Also that The Among the many faults of Kali Yuga One of them is that As it is said in Tamoguna Knowledge in Tamoguna Sarvartha niparitamsya Dharmam adharmamitiya Manyate tamasavrta Sarvartha niparitamsya Uddhisa parthamasi So in a mode of ignorance one sees Knowledge to One sees adharma to be dharma and dharma to be adharma In this way one sees everything The opposite of what it actually is So we see that In Kali Yuga It’s a time which is kept for people Who want to be sinful Who want to Go down Who want to engage in Largely sinful activities And within the cosmic time scale Those souls who are of this mentality They are allowed A time slot where There is And there is facility provided For engagement in all sinful activities So what happens? Because of this That at one level There is to be facilitation If you look at Kala As per the Roughly speaking as per the law of Kala In terms of In terms of the Descent of the ages As per the law of Kala In Kali Yuga is the age when Sinful people are provided a facility For engaging in their most sinful fantasies By which they will recognize that The purpose of all this is Whatever wild fantasies they have They engage and then by this Gradually I did all that I thought That would make me happy but it’s not making me happy There must be something else in life that I can do Which will make me happy And in that way people then become open In the next age say Sat Yuga What is it I’m supposed to do? They become open to Dharma So basically point is That as per the progression of Kala Kali Yuga is an age Where people are meant to Souls who want to Enjoy in grossly sinful ways they are provided A facility for gross sensual enjoyment But at the same time the law of Karma Still remains so by the law of Karma every action will produce a reaction So then how is the Principle of Kala To provide a license for To provide a facility for Souls to engage in sinful activities And the law of Karma that Every action will give a reaction How are these two to be reconciled? These are reconciled By making the reactions Not so easily visible To sense and perception That means The reactions come At the mental level Instead of at the physical level And So we see that as soon as a Person engages in sinful activities Motivated by lust or greed or whatever else The result of that is Rajasastra phalam dukkham Result of Rajoguna is Misery And once a person embraces Rajoguna and beyond that Tamoguna person is going to be miserable Inevitably But for example if a person is agitated By lust Yes at an external level One may see that oh this person is Having free sex with anyone and everyone And this person is enjoying But internally Lust is burning And no matter how much one enjoys one wants more And more and more And that craving for more and more Can never be satisfied And that’s why no matter how much one enjoys As soon as one sees another attractive subject The craving for lust starts burning And in that way one is perpetually agitated And one stays entangled So what happens is That Because the reactions are coming We see in Kali Yuga there is a huge amount of Adhyatmik clash Especially in terms of mental suffering And what we call as Prosperous parts of the world Even in this prosperous part There is a huge level of depression And Other mental health problems Suicidal urges and suicides also So depression, addiction And Such things are skyrocketing In what we consider the Prosperous countries So this indicates That actually people Are suffering So if Dharma leads to Artha And we are supposedly claiming that some people have Artha But Artha is not just The provision of material facilities Artha is that which The facilities which lead to material happiness So people are not happy even materially They are agitated They are anxious They are crushed by Desires and Worries, desires and anxieties So The karma is producing reaction But rather than producing necessarily a reaction And terms that are visible In terms of say poverty It is there is misery Amidst prosperity So people are People are often comfortably Miserable but whether there is Comfortable misery or uncomfortable misery It’s still misery So if a person is in stress Now that person A person is on the Streets in the hot heat Of the sun and is sweating Now we can see that there is a person sitting on a Posh car In a posh seat in an air-conditioned room In a plush office And we think of that person very comfortable But that person there may have so many Anxieties that despite There being an AC that person sweats not because Of heat but because of anxiety, because of stress And then people have emotional Breakdowns because of that And so the point is The reactions can come also at At the level of Mental problems And these mental problems are skyrocketing Which just indicate that That without living A life of virtue one cannot Have happiness even if one Circumstantially because of Delayed karmic reactions Coming up It seems as if one is not getting reactions but at Internal level one is still getting the reaction Of agitation, anxiety And misery Thank you So why is our connection